The problem is not eBay, it is Chinese sellers.
While most Chinese sellers are honest and try to give you as good a deal as possible, there are always bad apples.
Some of those items were never sent. Some never even existed.
In other words, it's a scam.
The seller refunds the (few) buyers who complain, avoiding eBay disputes which would get them kicked off the site.
They make their money from the naive buyers who don't complain, who don't know how to start a Dispute, or who forget their purchase.
Protect yourself by asking if the deal is too good to be true. It probably is.
Protect yourself by READING the feedback. 97% is a terrible score and a pattern of complaints about non-delivery or poor quality should encourage you to move on to a better seller.
And of course you could always Buy Canadian.
The problems I mention are not only on eBay. The same problems with bad sellers come up on every online selling platform. EBay just happens to the biggest.
